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Jean Keertan, a talented textile designer and felt artist rented my studio for 5 days. She was hosting a teaching artist named Marjolein Dallinga, an artist known as the "wool whisperer". Workshop: 5 days, 10 students, and more wool than I had EVER seen in one place. The creativity began, and the students walked with Marjolein on a journey of unknown discovery working on designs that had no "finish line", no real concept behind them. They were creating experimental wearable art using nothing but dyed wool. Students came from back east, the Oregon Coast, southern Oregon and beyond to study with Marjolein of Cirque du Soleil costuming fame. I completely understand why. Not only is she a deeply intuitive artist, her techniques are out of the box, and she said to me that finding wool was her way to express her ideas as a formally trained painter in a sculptural, 3 dimentional way. It was "her media". She's fabulous, open and an inspiration to so many.

The beautiful images that resulted form that workshop were incredible. I worked upstairs in my studio space, but stopped in often to see what had transpired....So these exchanges we had as artists were very rich, and definitely, inspirational. Marjolein created a necklace and felted fish into it, she said, "inspired by your fish, Carrie."

So I decided to begin a reductive pastel painting inspired by the colors in the necklace Jean had designed in the workshop, and a strange, beautiful german cabbage I purchased at Farmers Market that morning. Odd combo, but I guess I was due to make an odd painting.

Color was rubbed into the paper (see 4th image to above right) and using the palm of my hand, I rub all the colors together in a circular motion to mix, blend and move it to fill the tooth of the paper. This photo shows where I have removed color with rags & erasers.

Using a rag, I removed much of the dust on top of the color that remains. Eraser edges pulled away the color to show lighter values in the veins of the cabbage. Finally, I added in Terry Ludwig darks in the background, Pitt pastel pencil in the forms inside the cabbage to show depth, and Schmeinke vermillion and various blues and violets. So while this is a "subtractive" or "reductive" way of painting, I like to add finishing touches using both color and the edge of an eraser.